A good nil hand with a void in Spades

By Marya · Updated by Holger in September 2026

On another page, I showed that you can sometimes make a good nil bid, even when you hold Aces. Here's a different hand where my chances for a nil bid are good. Remember, nil bids always carry some risk, but the reward can be huge (a gain of 100 points). So it's worth spotting the chance to bid nil when it comes along. Look out for a hand like this in your next game of Spades.

As the dealer, I'm in a good position to bid nil. I can see what everyone else bid. If my partner bid 1, I'd know they have a weak hand and probably can't do much to defend my nil. If my opponents had a high total bid, for example 9 or 10, I'd know they have some high cards and good spades. They might be able to cover my bid even if my partner can't.

As it is, the total bid is 9, not counting mine. At first glance, that's not a promising sign for a nil bid. If I bid nil, the other players must take 4 tricks more than they bid. My right-hand opponent, Box, had a poor hand and could only bid 1. But my left-hand opponent and my partner both bid 4. Their hands are a little better than average (if you take the average bid to be 3).

Another downside is that I don't have the lowest possible cards in each suit. My lowest cards are the 3 of Hearts, the 4 of Diamonds, and the 5 of Spades.

On the plus side, I do have lots of low cards. My only high card is the Ace of Hearts, but I'm "long" in hearts, so chances are good that I'll never be forced to take a trick with it.

Most importantly, I'm void in clubs. Any time a player leads a club, I can discard a card from another suit. Once my partner sees I have this void, he can lead a club whenever he has the lead. Then I can safely discard a high card.

I'd much rather bid nil here. But keep in mind that this hand has the potential to take 2 or 3 tricks by trumping club tricks and winning a heart trick with my Ace. There's a risk in counting on that too. Suppose my partner plays the Ace and King of Clubs? I wouldn't want to trump those tricks. Then I may not get to trump a club trick at all. And since I'm long in hearts, my Ace could get trumped if another player is void in hearts.

In the end, I did bid nil. This YouTube video shows how it worked out.

Since I was already void in clubs, my plan was to go void in diamonds when I had the chance. Then I'd have only hearts and spades left. Two voids and some low cards improve my chances. For example, if my right-hand opponent trumped a club trick, I might be able to discard a spade, as long as their trump was high enough to cover my spade.

You might ask, "Why go for a void in diamonds rather than hearts?" There are a couple of reasons. I have 3 of the lowest hearts, so chances are good that I won't get set no matter how many times hearts are led. But if someone leads the 2 or 3 of Diamonds at the end of the hand, that could set me. Also, with only 4 diamonds, it takes me 4 tricks to go void in diamonds. With 6 hearts, it would take nearly half the tricks to get rid of them all.

As it turned out, the void in clubs helped make my nil a success. I discarded my highest cards when clubs were led. That showed my partner the highest cards in my hand, which helped him defend the nil. If you're defending a nil, it really pays to watch which cards your partner discards. Look for their voids and highest cards to get a clue about which cards to play.